


Someday

by Elsey8



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mentions of Death, Post-Time Skip, Verdant Wind Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-31
Updated: 2020-03-31
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:26:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23404477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elsey8/pseuds/Elsey8
Summary: Lorenz hates the war, and wants it to end.Claude offers what small comforts he can.
Relationships: Lorenz Hellman Gloucester/Claude von Riegan
Comments: 16
Kudos: 51





	Someday

The war is raging, and that’s hardly half of the truth here. The world is in disarray, fractured and chaotic. Claude is only barely sure of the side he’s on, and he’s working with so little information to begin with. As far as he knows, Lady Rhea isn’t in the wrong, and Edelgard is killing people because she wants power. But Edelgard never seemed like she would do something like this for such selfish reasons, at least not how he knew her. But maybe Claude didn’t know her like he thought he did. He thought he knew Dimitri, but he tried to kill them all. 

Claude thought he knew a lot of things before the war started. Now most of that knowledge has been turned on its head, and all Claude can do is listen to the allies he knows he has and follow the Professor. 

“You need to be stronger.”

Claude watches on in resignation as Lorenz trains with Linhardt. It hurts to watch. 

It should be entirely in Linhardt's favor, but somehow it isn't. Linhardt was half asleep as it was, and as the fight goes on he only gets worse. Lorenz is brutal enough without his opponent being way off their game like this. 

“Faster, smarter, you have to be _better_ than your enemy or you’ll die,” Lorenz says, easily dodging a spell. “This is no mock battle, or simple combat with some bandits. This is all out war!”

Linhardt manages a good hit, but Lorenz is fast and smart and too used to pain to flinch. His lance finds its mark quickly. Linhardt lays on his back, a blade to his neck, and sighs. 

“I just want it to be over...”

“Well it isn't. And it won’t be unless we end it.”

“How am I supposed to help with that? I'm barely on the battlefield, Marianne is a far better healer than I am. Even if I was on the field to heal, I’m just a support unit anyway, so why is this combat training necessary?”

“The Professor protects you with their life, I’ll always come to your aid, Raphael, Claude, Lysithea, Marianne, even Hilda would rather take a hit for you than stand and do nothing, so won’t you do the same for us?”

Linhardt nods with conviction and stands, his usual soft green healing magic being replaced with an angrier, much more dangerous magic. Claude watches with a careful eye, but has faith Linhardt of all people would never take things too far.

The dark black magic shoots out towards Lorenz, but he dodges. 

They trade blows for a while, seemingly evenly matched. Lorenz waits, watches, studies, and Linhardt ends up on the losing end yet again. This time, he stands and gets back into position without another word.

Claude walks away.

He ends up in his room, the same as when he actually attended Garreg Mach as a student. The whole place is trashed, but the rebuilding has been going okay at least. He couldn't find much of his old belongings, and he can only assume they were either destroyed or stolen at some point. At the very least he took most of the important stuff with him before he left. 

Despite how it looks it feels the same, a sweet comfort that envelops him. 

It's familiar as he goes to sit at his desk to go over tactics. He looks at maps and tries his best to think until the knock he was waiting for comes. 

Lorenz walks in without waiting for Claude to even call out permission. He doesn’t need to at this point, simply beginning to strip his armor off. How he wears the heavy material all day, Claude will never understand. 

He stands to help, pulling Lorenz’s hair out of the way to get him out of his chest piece. Eventually all that remains is his underclothes, which he quickly replaces with the lounge clothes he keeps in Claude’s room. Throughout the exchange, both of them are silent. They don't need words. Even though they hadn’t spoken for most of the five years the Professor had been gone, this routine has settled in so quickly.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Claude asks lightly.

“No. Maybe.”

Claude sits on his bed, adjusting until he’s comfortable where he is, and Lorenz has plenty of options of where to sit. He pointedly looks away, letting Lorenz decide for himself exactly where he wants to sit. 

Lorenz ends up with his head in Claude’s lap, the most vulnerable position he's ever willing to put himself in. Claude wonders if it was the training with Linhardt, or if this is build up that's just now come to fruition. But he doesn't voice any of that. 

Claude stays quiet, keeps his eyes on the wall, and waits for Lorenz to speak if he wants to. 

“The truth is, I want the war to just end too." Lorenz's voice cuts through the tense air like a knife. "I don’t want to keep killing our old...friends? Allies? Classmates?”

“I understand," Claude says, as neutral as he can stand to be. 

“I know we have to end it ourselves, but I have this dream that Edelgard and Dimitri will come to their senses and the fighting will cease. That everyone will lay their weapons down, and we can coexist like we all used to. I can have tea with Ferdinand, and talk to Dimitri like a normal person again. It’s a silly dream, I know, but I wish it with all my heart to come true.”

“It’s not silly. That’s my dream too, you know.” Claude begins to comb his fingers through Lorenz’s hair.

“I know, though, that Edelgard will not stop until she’s dead. And Dimitri...well he may not be dead, but I have a suspicion he did not live through those wounds. I don't know, what do you think?"

Lorenz is right. This war won't end until Edelgard ends it. Claude wants to say they can end it, they can force her to surrender. That isn't true. Edelgard alone holds the power, and she won't let it go until it's forcibly taken from her. She will continue to fight and resist until she's dead. Dimitri...Claude holds every hope that he's alive. 

He knows he isn't. 

Claude can't possibly tell Lorenz these things, even if they are true. But he also can't tell him a lie, least of all because Lorenz would detect it immediately. So he doesn't answer, not really. 

“I’m going to make you a promise, right now," he says instead. 

“Hm?”

Claude allows his fingers to go slack and brush against his...Lorenz's cheek. It’s wet. He forces himself to keep looking at the wall, though every bit of him wants to coddle Lorenz, that would never be acceptable in their relationship. 

“All of us will live through this. Maybe Edelgard and Dimitri are too far gone, but this little house is strong and all of us will live through this to someday meet back up here and talk about the past. We’ll be married off and maybe have kids, and we’ll talk about this war in the past tense. We'll have a modest little cabin away from it all or maybe a palace and either way it'll be perfect because we'll be together. We'll meet the others once a month for tea or dinner or maybe missions if there are any. We'll make the world a better place, because we'll be in charge of it finally. And all of us will be there, alive.”

“Can you truly promise that?”

Claude can't help it. He looks down at Lorenz, and smiles. 

“No, but I’m going to.”

Lorenz blinks, hard, and turns to pull himself up, hugging Claude. Claude slides down, laying gently on his mass of pillows, bringing Lorenz with him. Lorenz ends up holding him tightly, then loosening his grip slowly, until he’s barely holding on because he’s fallen asleep. 

Claude kisses the tear streaks on his cheeks, and lays there looking at the ceiling. 

He's exhausted, but surely it would be a crime to readjust now. 

The door creaks open.

“Claude? Oh...” Hilda stands there awkwardly. "Sorry."

“Shh, he hasn’t slept in two days. What do you need?”

Hilda stands sheepishly in the doorway, then points to the book on his desk.

“Take it.”

She grabs it, waves, and shuts the door behind her.

“Was that Hilda?”

Claude sighs, getting more comfortable since Lorenz is awake now anyway. 

“Mhm, she left that weird fashion book in here again. Why she constantly loiters in my room I'll never know."

Lorenz groans, hiding his face in Claude’s shoulder.

“I’m going to sleep for five years, the Professor had the right idea.”

Claude laughs, and can't quite stop the little bits of laughter until Lorenz has fallen back asleep.

At that point, moving at all and waking him would be unforgivable. 

**Author's Note:**

> This is something I found in my old drafts, and with some editing I figured I'd go ahead and post it! This will be happening a lot, so if you like FE3H, keep an eye on me because I went through a hyperfixation of it for a while and wrote a lot! It ranges from extreme fluff to extreme angst so there's something for everyone :)


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